First settle NSCN-IM's 'criminal acts', reiterates KIM
Source: The Sangai Express
Kangpokpi, August 10 2020:
Reiterating its firm stance, the Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM), the apex body of the Kuki tribes, mailed another representation to the Prime Minister today to first settle NSCN-IM's alleged heinous criminal acts of murdering 905 Kuki innocent citizens including children, pregnant mothers, aged and invalid; uprooting 360 villages and seizing their ancestral land and displacing over 1,00,000 Kuki people and rendering them homeless before working out any kind of settlement/solution with NSCN-IM.
It also reminded the Prime Minister that any solution reached with the NSCN-IM without first settling the Kuki problem will sow seed of social chaos which can eventually cause extensive social and political upheaval in the region.
On the issue of Kuki political stance for peace and harmony in Manipur and in relation to the ongoing tripartite political dialogue on Kuki political future, KIM reiterates its firm belief in peaceful coexistence among the three major communities - the Meitei, the Kuki and the Nagas in the State and recognized that mutual respect among the three communities of each other's political, constitutional and legal rights is the way forward.
However, it alleged that Th Muivah led NSCN-IM continuously sought to undermine the rights of the Kuki people over the territories they have inhabited long before and since the country's Constitution came into force, thereby challenging the very foundation of the Indian Nation while varied Kuki organizations have time and again sought the intervention of the Central and State governments, sadly to no avail.
It also said that when the prayer for intervention went unheeded, it perhaps emboldened the perpetrators.
Between 1992 and 1997, in a declared act of ethnic cleansing, preceded by a quit notice served to Kuki villages in Ukhrul, Senapati and Tamenglong districts, allegedly signed by United Naga Council (UNC) leaders, the Kuki villages were given a deadline of 15 September, 1993 .
Even before the expiry of the deadline, the NSCN-IM and its proxy, the Naga Limguard, launched an ethnic pogrom that saw more than 360 Kuki villages ethnically cleansed and forcibly annexed with the brutal massacre of more than a thousand innocent Kuki peoples and displacement of more than 100,000 Kukis, it alleged.
The Kukis breathed a sigh of relief when a letter of grievances was acknowledged and forwarded to the Government of Manipur on June 18, 2020 .
While the KIM was looking forward with high anticipation for all possible legal action against the NSCN-IM another crucial round of talks between the Union Government and the NSCN-IM has been scheduled, it further said.
KIM also pointed out that of the 16 districts in Manipur, the Kukis dominate five of them namely Chandel, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal, Pherzawl and Churachandpur.
"Issue of Naga integration has aroused fear in our minds that vast territory of our land will be included in the proposed Naga Territorial Council.
The Kuki can't forget the ethnic cleansing carried out by the NSCN-IM with the sole intention to forcibly seize lands belonging to the Kukis", it said.
"A solution for the Nagas of Manipur, at the cost of the land belonging to the Kukis will add fuel to the simmering tensions between the two communities, as well as a strong disappointment towards the Government of India", it asserted.
Khaimang Chongloi, KIM president and Shokholun Mate, KIM general secretary who signed the representation on behalf of the Kuki people also sought attention of the Prime Minister to consider the situation of the Kukis before finalisation of the Frame work Agreement and also to establish a strong political institution so that the Kukis as an indigenous people of India can govern their own affairs within their traditional territory and protect their ancestral land and identity which their forefathers have defended from the British Raj and grow at par with other communities of the country.
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